Newcastle United’s loss at Sunderland boiled down to one thing: Fabricio Coloccini’s stupidity and his attempts to be ‘macho man’ at the Stadium of Light.

It’s as simple as that.

The Magpies were in complete and utter control against Sunderland until Coloccini’s moment of madness, and that gave the home side their first real effort on goal and entirely changed the course of the game.

It was a result-defining moment and ok, United have won their appeal against his red card, but it was a penalty. End of.

Any Newcastle fan who says it wasn’t is simply kidding themselves because it was a foul on Steven Fletcher and therefore a spot kick.

Coloccini’s actions were stupid and naive. The penalty completely changed the course of the game – I cannot stress enough how much the derby hinged on Coloccini’s recklessness.

You are taking a serious risk as a footballer when you try to push someone off the ball in your own box – and for what purpose exactly? Just to prove you’re ‘macho man’?

As captain and as an experienced member of the team, that is simply unacceptable. Steve McClaren went apoplectic at the referee, and the sending-off was harsh so you can understand why, but he must also be furious with his captain.

The Argentinian centre-back should never have put himself in that position in the first place. He was caught flat-footed to begin with and didn’t track Steven Fletcher’s run, but I think he had recovered somewhat before his stupid shoulder barge.

And it was a shoulder barge. I’ve seen some people say it was just an easing off the ball but that is complete rubbish. It was a foul and a penalty was the right decision.

True, Newcastle could have had a spot kick of their own moments earlier for Lee Cattermole’s arm across Georginio Wijnaldum, which I also think was a penalty, but the captain is still wholly culpable for the defeat.

I honestly saw no way of Sunderland scoring before he gave that penalty away.

They had barely registered a shot and they looked like a bog-standard side, while Newcastle were zipping the ball around nicely and were causing all sorts of problems to the Black Cats defence.

The perspective and dynamic of the game changed completely in that one moment. If Newcastle had gone in 0-0 at half-time, I am sure they would have won the game in the second-half.

Aleksandar Mitrovic, Georginio Wijnaldum and Jack Colback had all caused problems and dominated the first 45 minutes – one of them would have found the back of the net during the second half. There’s no doubt at all in my mind about that.

As captain, Coloccini has to be accountable for that challenge. On far too many occasions Coloccini has let his teammates and the club down and McClaren has every right to be furious at him.

All the good work from the impressive Norwich City victory has been undone and it’s down to Coloccini.

He tried to be ‘macho man’ and clever during a Wear-Tyne derby by knocking Steven Fletcher off the ball and all he managed to do was cost his side the game.

One moment of stupidity cost Newcastle United all three points at Sunderland – and Coloccini is fully accountable for that.